It's This American Life a special program today on the wonders of. Fish. Actually Say the word here and the word is. And as you know each we can. Invite a variety of writers and performers to tackle that theme and this week as we stand now in that magical 5 weeks of the year that magical 5 weeks. Served at Thanksgiving the turkey served at Christmas. A period when Americans consume nearly a 4th of all the turkey consumed in this country every year. And for years on this program during this important time of year. This American Life would bring yet another program about. Today we're going back to stories from some of those very old episodes for that's right stories about Turkey. And their mysterious hold over us. Coming up this hour. The story of a typical American family and imaginary poultry. Back to. What poultry positive program would be complete without. In the late 1900. Today my friends again that 3 chickens. In. An opera about. Sang in Italian and. Able to make a grown man cry. That's for. Trying to respect the chicken the story of one woman's quest to try to give chickens the honor and the dignity that they are rarely accorded even though the chickens resister efforts. Stay with us. At one. So in Daniel's family the power of poultry is so great in their lives when they serve chicken or turkey they call it That's right and they call it this for a reason and the reason has to do with a stuffed puppet called ducky Now Danielle is a woman over 30 years old her sister Ashley is 2 years younger Duckie has been in the family since they were children well. Here's a Christmas present. That. When he 1st arrived really. And he was this beautiful fluffy white. And he had a cape on and black kind of. Hero. And I. The outfit pretty quickly anyone cared and and then he became. Her older siblings to dominate younger ones and his children. Dominated Ashley as she looked up to Danielle fought to get her attention and her approval and Daniel always always got her way. Except when Ducie was around. Basically as he would. Channel. In this kind of channel. That she would speak as ducky and Ducky was sarcastic that he was selfish and bossy. That he would give her painful nose squeaks whatever. Brought back into the equation he was completely dominant or like I was just putty. Compare his personality with Ashley's person I don't. Think so I kind of consider it and he's very considerate and kind and thoughtful and they're either sensitive to other people very very concerned about other people happy and when someone else doesn't feel good and Becky has a total like you know what for lunch attitude like what's in it for May. Say totally out for himself. Simultaneously a braggart in the hole when he's boastful and. Indomitable Yeah indomitable spirit. Yes apartment sometimes and I've seen a. Picture. Not spoken with her sister in weeks. She picks the phone calls Ashley in Michigan actually answers. Danielle I asked mediately. Can you put ducky on. And then Ashley censure you know become stuck on the phone. Can you talk to ducky for 1520 minutes. And then they both hang up that's the whole conversation. And they both feel satisfied. Then you know it's an editor at a big New York magazine. I adore Becky I really love Duckie and sometimes I think like if he disappeared it would really feel like someone died I mean I look at him and he looks really kind of old and ratty and it really makes me sad or kind of really feel like I mean it sounds crazy I mean I really it really makes me sad to think about like a world without ducky and it would be a big empty hole in the world he kind of takes up this much room in my heart is like a lot of people individually and I would I would if he if something happened to him you know if he were like lost in an airport or kind of. Run over by a car I would be really be heartbreaking. But it's coming clear why if you had dinner in the home of Danielle's family and serving some kind of poultry you know chicken or turkey if you ask anybody in the family what's for dinner the tell you fish right and the rationale for that is what makes that out freaks them out because you don't like him to know that perhaps some birds are. I think he knows I think about it he's in denial about most things he's in denial about the fact that he's totally like a week and tiny and dirty he thinks he's really good looking and. And there is really a lot of right. Actually. Sometimes I. Like it just. Like no way. No I thought I would try to book Jackie to come on the radio for this program. So I contacted Danielle sister Ashley and asked her you know Kentucky come in the air. And received an answer back that I found out by electronic mail that for Jackie to appear I'd have to 1st go through someone named. Who I could reach to Danielle and Ashley's mother. And I talked to Danielle I asked her about this I've been informed that the only way that I can reach him is by calling your mom and speaking to you don't know who to have the name right yeah yeah you know let I think that she's acting as his agent you know who is she is a hedgehog anything special that I should say you know will to make. I mean I don't know she's a pretty good she does a pretty hard bargain RINGBACK. Here's why I called you I want to do a little story on the radio about ducky. Ducky and and I contacted your daughter Ashley and she said that for me to book Duckie on to my radio show I was going to 1st need to contact. You know you would need to do that and that I needed to do that through you. Who is you know will be on a little is. She kind of up. To the head. To basically take a charge of Ducie financial affairs and I presume this is somebody with money. I don't know actually I mean that we that's probably why she said to contact you know a little well so what do I do now I'm calling Scotto to contact you and if I want to get in touch with the owner Lou in order to book ducky What do I do next book ducky Ok you got a book ducky that's that's how I don't want to book docking Ok for the show for an interview well I'll just. Talk to you a little about it she says Ok it's Ok anyway you know we want to discuss terms or something to talk so what's going. On right should I call you back you could call me back or I just go go in and check you know just going to check yeah should I wait yeah right away. All right yeah this is just radio yeah not t.v. It's just radio and nobody's going to get to be on t.v. . No no it's going to be on t.v. Now it's strictly radio Ok you know doesn't care what happens what if it were t.v. I think she'd want to be on to. I mean right you know doesn't do much for her to talk. And you might imagine not everybody in the family takes on the so lightly Daniel's father was never too keen on this he was quite actually bothered by the whole he thought we maybe had a problem the family really. I mean there. For a while there we had 2 daughters only communicated through a dock. That period that you're describing what do you mean I would say maybe of our 10 and 12 or 9 and 11 and they would only communicate through the dock well. Danielle didn't pay a whole lot of attention to Ashley but she paid quite a lot of attention to the duck. So if Ashley wanted to get Danielle's attention all she had to do is rev up the duck down to this last. I can remember she also make Danielle left that way right then yells out that he was very funny but I can't remember thinking actually was funny in terms of the relationship between my sister and me I don't know why I mean this is public completely really sick but I have so much kind of genuine affection and love for ducky that it's very easy to be in it and it's very easy to demonstrate those feelings in a way that it's not as easy to kind of demonstrate those feelings toward my sister just because you know that kind of got in the habit of that's what percentage of your relationship with your sister is based on your relationship with ducky Well a really fun part of it is based on my relationship with Becky but I think as we've got older and older we've gotten kind of more us more and more self-conscious about the ducky factor in our relationship. And but I think I think kind of the big I mean it definitely kind of gives me this. Vision into her brain that I wouldn't have otherwise. But I did finally snag an interview with ducky. By calling Ashley. Duckett still up for this yeah he test got back from a party that he just got back from the party yeah he was at a happy hour thing and. Went out with a lot of like college students. Did not in college but he's in the band so on his friends kind of happy on Friday night it will could you get him. A ducking you know. I'm just fine with Long time no see back at you and welcome to our little radio program so let's hear you talk about bunch of summaries Well we actually have a number of different people like Tom Cruise. Just like Tom Cruise. Yeah now Doug you know I was talking to I Danielle for our radio program and had her come on and talk about you a little bit and one of the things that she said was that when she was younger in order to discipline her if she was doing something that you didn't like you could pretty much control her with something called nose squeaks. Just because it's a prominent you know it's you know long sticks out just not going. You know I want to thank Heaven we are watching the markets and picking up on and she reminds me a lot of mealy. Danielle. You know and come out told Miss Piggy move the block and tongue like most part way and what she moves Yes you. See Well now if Ashley would tell or would she would stand in the catch and say to Danielle move the port . But with the effect of that they. Kind of you know you know I mean I you know she looks and you know when she's doesn't approve of something I say or do she gets this kind of ice club stare and gives you the sideline glance that makes you kind of feel like care about such a plea Yeah that's what she does. Is there anything about the life of a duck that that perhaps you could tell a radio audience that we that we might not know you know that I'm sure that you know much more about it than we do. You know I'm touching the whole scene here when I have a migraine. Because I have. No time. Right Mark. On my own brain and I think time you know like things are I don't want to. Ducky and stuff but now listen Sharon Connecticut if you will and then. If you. Don't pay. If you go to. The beaches. Saturday night. Just. To. See such a great. Story of a 27 year old graduate student who talks like a duck naturally brings us to the story of Chicken Man. To man 1st toward the radio airwaves from 1966 to $969.00 nearly every day there will be a new episode because it is like short little things like each one was like 2 minutes long starting a w. C.f.l. In Chicago but spreading to over 1500 radio stations going to people who syndicate to command it's been translated into German and Dutch Swedish. Chicken Man. To man existed years before National Public Radio existed as a national network to continue probably 2 years after we're all gone like the mighty cockroach like I don't know like the bagel. To the man indoors will end or when I was a kid to command was the only thing I ever heard on the radio that I loved The only thing I look forward to on the radio nothing was cause. I never started making radio as a teenager everything I made was an imitation of chicken ma'am All right let me put you on. About another exciting episode in the life of the most fantastic crime fighter the world has ever know. Was. Employed as he was salesman for a large downtown department stores spends his weekends is only 2 days off striking teller into the hearts of criminals everywhere as the white winged while you're called Chicken Man how did it come about that Benton Harbor weekend when one of your selected the visit of the chicken in his crusade against the forces of evil knowledge can be told. Yes man help you how do you do I'm looking for a costume a what do you have mine something that will strike terror into the hearts of criminals everywhere how about this no I don't think so why not try it on my way around here thank you there you are not take a look in the mirror not bad I wonder if you would permit me to conduct a quick experiment outside this store certainly. Pardon me Sir are you by chance a vicious criminal. Fine would you take a look at this cost you about working yeah do you feel anything strange I mean thing at all oh yeah and what is that right like to kiss your. Because maybe. I'll be will come for that because you look like an adorable bunny rabbit. Well how do you go. What else do you have candy bear and a chicken and a teddy bear to be cute wrap up the chicken please. Be listening tomorrow for another exciting episode in the life of the most fantastic crime fighter the world has ever known. Was. I love these you want another we have time for another one here are. The things I love as to how completely low key the performances are it's like they're not even trying it's a complete a static I let's let's hear one more before we continue with the next act. Nothing another exciting episode in the life of the most fantastic crime fighter in the world has ever known. Thank you sir. Thank. The office of the police commissioner of Midland City. Hello this is the Kommersant over here this is the warrior me as well as in place inform the commissioner that I will also for to sequence the one white it's all private right to go what are you talking about the Chicken Little This whole thing of the chicken missile it was sold to what was your body for just a quick over what. Just was helping or commissionaire the chicken missile is ready to go the chicken missile Oh yes of course the end is ready for test sequence number one just sequence number Well number one well that's very nice very nice yes when Warrior right here is Holder the commissioner said That's very nice oh fine but case was over have a commissioner stand by with the check it was receiver white board a couple lists and it was they were 1400 or below. Yes it was over go commissioner Yes I would say do you prepare the chicken missile receiver would you know you were I didn't think you would mission or as I would suggest trying to unite structure under like there is actually it should provide some protection for our. Ship them as. I. Say that chicken missile really works nifty with the little city fire department recommend that. Chicken missile receiver be installed. What's left of Midland City will. Be listening tomorrow for another exciting episode in the life of the most fantastic crime fighter of the world has ever known. The many was looking at. Thanks very much to the creator and voice of chicken man Mr Dick Orkin I remember when I 1st called him to ask permission to replay these stories on our show and how weird it was to talk to him on the phone after all my years of loving chicken man because he sounds just like Chicken Man it was weird over the years I would talk to him now and then and finally got over that feeling and I am very sorry to say that he died in 2017. Daughter Lisa is currently trying to find a home on the internet for the chicken man archive Spotify Pandora You're listening to this if you would like updates on where you can hear chicken man some day go to her website we so work and creative dot com Coming up and then over to the fact you can sings that's in a minute from Chicago Public Radio when our program continues. This is Lisa Negri and I am a leadership partner was called out of public radio. I listened because c.p.r. Presents a balanced portrait of the news and it's not sensationalized I do get to learn something every day. C.p.r. Percent stories of triumph and tragedy that touch my heart consider making a 5 figure gift and join other major donors and C.P.R.'s leadership partner program at c.p.r. Dot org. C.p.r. News reporter Grace Hood is part of the new climate team a group of reporters dedicated to covering the stories affecting you and she says climate really affects everyone it's amazing to me how one topic can dip into so many different areas from health to politics or maybe even education the breadth of some of these issues really runs the gamut. This is c.p.r. News it's American life I'm Ira Glass each of our program of course which is a theme I bring you a variety of different kinds of stories on that theme today show during this period of greatest poetry consumption in our nation the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas we bring you stories of chickens turkeys ducks fat of all kind real and imagined we did this poultry show so many times year after year in November that Today show is basically a greatest hits of chicken stories from many many years past we arrived at Act 3 of our program 3 chicken diva chickens are what we make of them in a lot of ways if you could possibly need further evidence of that after those 1st 2 acts we just heard we have this story from Jack yet oddly enough it wasn't Susan who was obsessed with chickens it was Kenny about her work backstage at the 92nd Street y. In New York his house was filled with chicken cops chicken masks he got the whole staff on the chickens including citizen for a time there in the eighty's culture related jokes and references became the fast way to get a laugh at the why I guess most of us are condemned to see nothing more than the easy comedy of chickens but Susan for 2 she saw something else their potential greatness there hadn't be their granddaughter one day she glued together some finger puppets for a 10 minute rendition of the Chicken Little story for her nephew that was 14 years ago today and is a full length opera enjoyed by a cult following whenever it goes up in a workshop or cafe or small theater. It's still perform with finger puppets but now it has a complete score written by noted composer Henry Krieger who did Dreamgirls the chicken little opera he wrote with Susan Batouti It's called Love's fowl Needless to say that's f. O. W. L. Well we were going to start. With the opening c.m. Adele t.x. Repertory Adela military we had a closed and Repertory Theater and we have a special singing guest where we would share I don't know Susan and I are sitting at Henry's maybe grand piano in his guest is not he's terrier named Toby perhaps Toby would be kind enough to join us and you were just about your last letter Yeah yeah let's see what we can do Ok. Ok listen carefully because once tell me gets going actually I'm a nice theory and Susan. Dooryard. Both of you had a love knows you're lucky. You may have noticed this libretto is an Italian just like a real opera before it was just a bunch of puppets in a box you know with a good idea and then suddenly he says went into Italian It became something bigger than what it had been and it's because when it's in English we all kind of know it and it's really not that interesting you know it's like you you assume this in Italian it gives us anough distance that we can come in you know makes us he's like the the lover who doesn't want you you don't want anybody more than you want the one who doesn't want you. All right and so then it's sort of the same thing. And then he. Makes. Then. You may recall that when you last heard of little back and going to garden she was just an average barn door file but an acorn dropped on her head but she mistakenly understood to be the sky falling her alarms excited her friends to see Lucy Turkey Lurky and Duckie lucky and they join her for a journey to the king to tell them the important news on the way they meet up with Sly Fox little spouse eagerly accept his invitation for dinner literally as it turns out fortunately for little hunger is not enough to distract her from her mission and she tracks on when she meets the king he tells her that the sky is not falling it's just an acorn So the enlightened Chicken Little returns to her coop and that's where the story ends. What are we to take away from levels experience I'd like to think it's that little is rewarded with life precisely because she went off on this quixotic mission totally in the grip of a wrong idea. And READY. The children's fable barely figures into the story it's just one small episode in a life of Chicken Little now known as La pull Cina. After the acorn incident she goes on to become an internationally renowned figure in almost every field imaginable diva of politics academia theater art daring do like Venus she arrives from some other world transported on a scallop shell but the triumphs of her life begin after youth a love affair with a fighting cock ends bitterly and she consoles herself as we all do at some point in our lives by plunging into Shakespeare she becomes an overnight sensation as an actress celebrated all over the world for one role Juliet Cleopatra Ophelia the company that performs a an excerpt recreate the 1st signature role which is Richard the 3rd. Well you know I mean Sarah Bernhardt Hamlet but there's a great tradition of women playing the men's roles in Shakespeare but I think Richard the 3rd mother wrote more rare roles to be played by a woman well that's how. An actress This chicken is. Sure there's nothing like watching a 4 inch tall finger puppet crying out a horse a horse my kingdom for a horse an Italian. Not to mention that that puppet is a chicken surrounded by a whole supporting cast of poultry and other avian supernumeraries Susan says that artistically there's something special about chickens there are clean slate there you can put anything on you can project anything under them because it's not like they have to me at least a very strong personality except for Lokpal Cina and the opera she moves into the field of archaeology masters it needless to say and makes a great discovery the last term of Gallup. But not before she sails the 7 seas ship wrecked it's rescued but it's by pirates and then she meets the Pirate King as he soon as he meets her falls in love with her because of her sweet spirit because she comes in and she says here you see a little chicken. Who although I'm dripping wet I'm proud and yellow Let me repeat that there for you in a pure translation although I stand before you a chicken who is dripping wet I am proud and I am yellow. Ok faxes and although I loved and I have lost I have learned to follow the call of adventures so let's say a. Few . Are to keep in mind that all of the action like everything that occurs in every Susan for 2 production ever since the 1st one for her nephew and continuing to this day occurs among characters created by sticking a small painted styrofoam ball onto a larger painted star foam ball poking into map tax for eyes gluing on a tiny felt beak and then impaling the whole thing on top of one of those really old fashioned close pens that a forty's cartoon figure would clamp to his nose around a chunk of Limburger cheese was. Their goal was. To go. There was no no. No. No no. No no. And I could go on Susan has written or she puts it translated love will she know people as diaries which detail the other adventures that happened in between those in the opera there are 60 pages so far excerpts of which have appeared in clotheslines the official fan club newsletter of the Opera loves fowl has a strange effect on people. I didn't understand it until Susan loaned me a video tape of one performance to be honest I thought I would be annoyed at the intentional irony and hokiness of the poppets But there I was with my 3 year old daughter who love the show watching a plastic bird pantomime one of the simplest human moments but also one of the most profound the confession of a great love and this case with a cock robin the song that she sings as she enters goes I am a chicken and Ready for Love My heart is as fragile as the egg from which I was born treat me gently and so will I treat you together from roughly love we will reach for the divine and then she sings I'm a chicken and I can't fly without love my heart my heart as strong as the egg from which I was born and so forth and so innocent only with Cock Robin that she flies. Was. Coolest. And after they have agreed to fly together and they are soaring in the air Cock Robin a shot killed murdered by a jealous Sparrow I can believe it but I was getting choked up specially when Cock Robin appeared on the stage styrofoam body spray painted black for the moment his little magic marker eyes drawn his axis I gathered my daughter my arms and held on tight as I was helplessly drawn into an expression of the grief and suffering of this little sad bird and this ear of slick special effects there is something unexpectedly liberating and the marriage of this crude medium painted Styrofoam balls bobbing up and down behind a cardboard box in the high melodramatic art of Italian opera. Pictures of these so called. The energy. Of this so you. Know my God didn't want to me. To States Yeah. Yeah. I want to subscription to that newsletter are you going to do this I mean are you going to be working with full chain of people you think for the rest of your life it's possible and I like working with her because I get to go into a world that's that's inhabited by a very sweet spirit and play with that were the make mechanics of the world and because it's very small like I could never have afforded to produce this show with people but I could afford to do it with plus bands so I can do as big a production as I want. With clothes pins I can have stuff fly in and out and come in from traps and I can have all kinds of fancy flashy stuff that cost millions of dollars to do on Broadway and in a cost me $200.00 because I had to buy lots and lots and lots of styrofoam and clothes pins and stuff and all this in a new table maybe and I get to do whatever I want but on. The. Street. Was was. Jacket these days He's the co-host of the wonderful Peabody award winning podcast uncivil which And I know how this is going to sound it tells the hidden stories of the Civil War with the same joie de vivre that you just heard in a story about chicken little idea about the. Well as your job. That for trying to respect the chicken. It's one thing to take a fictional character like Chicken Little and make her into a star Try doing that with a real chicken just try. These are photographs of chickens. And the 1st one here is a Silver Laced wind. It's a black and white bird essentially but the tail feathers have a lot of iridescent green coloring in a world where chickens get no respect Tamar staple streets in the way that humans treat those we revere most she takes the portraits lovingly to her shots of like fashion photographs beautifully red car backdrop to this beautiful sort of person looked regal been a just trying to one with the Masonic sake it's like a kind of likes books comic it's a model who Dan which is sort of car like the Phyllis Diller chicken which is like cut the chicken does look like Phyllis Diller. It does it's the hat you know looks like it's got this huge feathered. Hat sort of thing in a strange body shape in like you know way it's like Tamar Staples is running an odd little cross species science experiment when that asked this question what happens when you try to treat a chicken the way we treat humans even if it's just for the weight of a photo shoot what happens it turns out as you learn just with a thin line is a divide human beings from birds. All right maybe it's not a thin line but it's definitely a line and like most city people I had never thought about it about where it lays about what it might be what it might consist of Tamar and I headed out to a farm. That is the best. One to get dirty and it is a matter if you want to live through the day find. Figure out we're going to have to get him to react to wrangle then you know by the Davidsons dairy farm about an hour and a half northwest of Chicago family members present So who's helping Tamra choose a bird photographed sister why are you studying photography to nearby university the grandfather George Cairns and veteran greeter the father Dick who seems the most skeptical of this whole project. But who patiently shows Tamar and her sister Denis the milking barn as possible place to set up and shoot what kind of an area are you looking for me. I need to give you a wider shot you think anything could be from here to there and you know from like that pole to that pole. Then what. We're saying maybe this is a good time to pull out the part for you because you know that it. And I actually think I need to study of the birds but it's an isolated study so doesn't people aren't necessarily associating it with the farm in something to eat Tema takes us outside the barn owner photos and shows them her shot name dropping the names of some big chicken people whose people whose bird she's photographed including Bob editor of the poultry press did notice is that a bird in one photo as Quicken toes. On a hard surface to turn. Would you guess it. Would have pictures are nice chart I mean not known of pictures if there's a few. Of birds. You know they are posing the way they should from them. Fact is most city people usually go nuts when they see Thomas pictures on a chicken beaters don't like them and understand why to fully comprehend this whole culture clash here in America we have to leave the barnyard for a minute and flashback to something that happened back at Tammy's apartment in the city. Commission of this old red book from the turn of the century this book with the seal of the American Poetry Association in gold on the front and then right there in gold letters standard of perfection standard of perfection is really the Bible as poultry. Standards you know what birds are Temma for past integrating is no stations of chickens of all types and breeds these were show chickens standing the way that you can stand in competitions then put out one of their own photos to compare it to show me how her poses do not meet different standard in the book The townies to be higher stick her feet are not erect you know standing chest isn't out head it needs to be out more and it shows I mean you can see the shape of the chicken much better than the standard of perfect perfection pose. To me was it said she there is a standard of perfection doesn't include a person our right. Because it's not about personality it's about breeding and it's a set of pose that the owners would want to own a photo. They're very particular about this they want to see their bird in the standard of perfection pose definitely possess what they've been taught from for 8 when there are kids to do that's for them for self for City customers to use the other's. Back to the barn or. Hammer in the Davidsons decide to set up a photo session and then that's usually used to store feed for the cows he's a 45 minutes to set this up that for them as it was dismantling and moving a wall of hay that is probably one feet high and 50 people on this takes 5 people them into power and the fancy lights in the back truck that Congress didn't call the back drop is hired 1st with an iron and ironing board brought from the city just for that purpose love and a half 11 and even half Yeah they have you're you're just going to learn to have 11 and a half years your film at 11 it was cold well below freezing so cold that the Polaroid film the tema uses for lighting tests would not fully develop. Should bird. Communally the bird he's one of the look how sweet she you know what I'm going to photograph you financed camera of your photographer for today my 1st bird is white Cornish a show bird who belongs to George Schober it is used to being picked up and handled part of repairing chickens for shows involves handling them a lot so they calm with the judges he does not just have a little bit he's perfect He's got his chest out casement now he's got his face and yet you know we want great Georgie he's got a feather on his on his back cameras the Cornish stand up in a stack of little red antique books kind of unsteady things go well for a lot it's a half dozen good shots of the bird express or shot more personality and affection for each housemate the bird chest isn't high enough its body is not turned correctly or camera and then the bird stops cooperating he gets tired pause a suggestion bring in a poet you know what you know that works maybe should explain what that is what it is what does it mean to bring in a poet. Thanks maybe a female Pergamos. Mara grabs a hand and waves at the flacid cock the Cock does not rise and I can say that on the radio right 3 opponent better to get the one from the other kind that he's not used to press. His dream around a little bit so his for the chicken the rooster will really show more for him that it doesn't know yes now if you put a new hand in with your now it's him it was a group a new and true really so that you try this and that nothing with much success and finally one shot left Pozen just putting your hand into the picture with this to get the girls are like she looks like her feet are like so far she's really struggling just you know he's always been there why the bars etc etc I did you see that. All right why would she just did it because she looked up at him very sweetly like that but with a he with her had caught the male bird was posing and she was posing also but had a personality of just being like the sweet doting mother you now but not standard intersection but not standard of perfection. So we're down with this background and not standard of perfection even these perfectly bred Cornish is cannot achieve a standard of perfection today. And even in this goofy un bird like situation an hour of watching them makes clear just how hard it is to ever get birds hit the standard. Which is to say not only do we completely dominate every aspect of the 5 to chickens their births their feeder eggs their slaughter men only have we bred them to human specifications to me human needs and we have created a standard of what it means to be a chicken. And most chickens can never move. That's what the standard means we judge them as chickens and we find the mocking. If they had the brains to understand this they would be right to feel indignant. But of course this is a city person's perspective and that means that it is completely wrong headed from the point of view of anybody who actually misses birds standing in the cold feet and I had a long long talk with George about this during his 80 years old amazing bird since the thing is the Calvin Coolidge administration and he says the whole fun of raising birds is raising them to the standard Well like for instance if your birds . Like bone Ok you bought in by a bird is near didn't like them as you can with better bone no one you know made them to gather email good long legged birds are too short or. I mean you don't get what you want to find maybe it takes 4 or 5 years to gradually get it up and by that time there in Britain that many new and Jewish tells me that when he's greeting a new batch of birds who have $65.00 of them and only one or 2 will be anywhere near the standard of perfection that's how hard it is do you get frustrated with the standard of perfection sometimes you know we get frustrated with the judges. Because every judge has his own idea what the standard should be I think that's a whole point of the standard is that as that is but one judge or one of this way in another another today if you read your birds to the standard perfection wait never saying and took them to the show you cry wouldn't get anywhere you got to breed to the fads that's a bad start. Like when it is these days especially on shorter legs and the real standard of action but it will tell feathers out and also it's a breed that really should have them. In the country among the chicken breeders I think that a lot of things you never get to in a city and when you're basing these particularly with any of these birds I mean do you have a close relationship with the bird the way it was somebody would have the pet saying. I don't have time yeah I'm going to this I got too many things to do. Things. For years ago almost died of cancer Good Lord told me how to cure myself and so I've been working with that a lot the last 3 years and I'm helping people. Put it in the papers now it's getting all over the United States would you really do have to use the writ of a dandelion simplest can be that they something they're not that builds up your blood in your immune system which is a new thing that you were diagnosed with cancer and this is the only treatment you had any cure you. And I give it to other people in the medical world has told them that there's nothing more they can do if they've got well too and not all of them if they're too far gone it will help you and you make it into tears and they're. Why we just put it in a little water little milk kool aid you can put it on a sandwich anything does I'm hot. So it gives me a pamphlet that he's written up there doctors actually check them out to prove the cancer is gone from his body he's actually got no hard scientific proof that this really works but he says God told him this is the way should be spending his time and it has cut into his bird's reading of it. Church waves off another business Thomas finished painting and lighting the next back up and the rest of us begin with the 2nd bird a record of Brahma with elaborate Lee pattern brown and white feathers. She is you know is a chicken like the size of a dog and there at that date small dog. A 2nd bird demonstrates the great distance between Bird instinct in intelligence and the demands of modern fashion photography which is to say a civilization called upon to do human tasks even rather passive ones a bird remains a bird but carries the huge hand into the fragile Septembers about u.t. Which even their buddy. Who is flat to me. I'm scared of this one she says quietly she just her camera the chicken is so big 9 lb size of a small consumer turkey and she has to pull the camera back the Davidsons it looking at her skeptically Polly asked pointedly if she's ever shot a bird this big we got to go where the. Up. And then bird begins threatening faces. Thank you Joe very face you know I have yet to talk to me to be beautiful here's your moment. Ok She'll there more where you came from body you better act that here is a combination of coddling and threats might motivate an aspiring supermodel or an eager Poppy but this after all is a chicken. Bar tries to Ward up with a handful of course you can't use Acorn she's trying to get it but she's as a stand upright or serious stand somewhere during this ordeal one thing happens all the Davidsons who all started off skeptical they are completely engaged Dixie just suppose that is pure art concept opposed that could not be further from standard of perfection wara words the bird with corn possum. And when the bird Quivers or moves a wing 3 people jump in to fix it back up there's some feathers on the breast a little bit a little bit fluffy You know it's not real clean there. She is over there you guys are great team I'm going to tie you down with me. I got to stand in their bed primary I'm in the. Living and agree it wasn't to this point that I realized that I came into the sort of expecting the bird to be more when one human partly I think because I'd never really thought about this one way or the other. But partly because Tamra's photos make chicken seem so. So thoughtful. With their covers that if anyone has it they're completely out of her and those photos are by good and. I think you know the ones Sharon opportunity here is going to be one I like to go. Because. She's 18 might go it's a lead up and he gave me and that is you can try to get to introspect you try to treat them with dignity and photograph in the way you photograph anything or anyone that serious but the chickens will not care you can make the most dignified but it is a brainless bird like dignity and it is ephemeral do you feel like your relationship with chicken. Has changed because it is. Now. Nana How could there not consume. I order the chicken you know when I'm at the show and eat it right in front of the chickens. Each chicken while you're standing there with a chicken. That Ron. Hungry. When there was still. On. The packet I hear and move the massive wall of hay back into place as we do this to can top I promise Americanas experience they seem utterly uninterested in us the cock at each other is feeding in a mess and then there are better things to do with their time and you know there's nothing that makes you realize just how inhuman chickens are. Spending a day trying to make them seem human. After. Get. The stories in today's program or produced by Alex Blumberg Susan Burton 7 injuries night or early speed. Using up Mr John Connors Thanks also to. Additional production on today's rerun from Jessica stone Nelson and Matt Tierney. Photographs of chickens and compiling a book called The Magnificent chicken. Little is available for download more information a w w w dot www dot org that is of course. CIA and check it story about her 1st aired back in 1907. The grandfather from the Davidsons dairy farm died in 2011. 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News in Washington I'm Janine Herbst the White House says it won't attend a public hearing this Wednesday as the impeachment inquiry now heads to the Judiciary Committee chairman during our day the White House lawyers a deadline of today to decide whether they would participate this week he also gave a separate deadline of Friday on whether they would participate in any of the hearings going forward Trump will be at NATO meetings in London on Wednesday N.P.R.'s Winsor Johnson reports on this week's hearings the Judiciary Committee is expected to receive a final report from the intelligence panel on its findings after weeks of open and closed door testimony from key witnesses in the probe speaking on Fox News Sunday Hey Keim Jeffries a Democrat on the Judiciary Committee says the next step will be whether to move forward with articles of impeachment Ultimately every single member of the House of Representatives are going to have to decide whether they want to put principle over party whether they want to put the Constitution I had a corruption the inquiry continues to center on whether Trump used a military aide as leverage to press the Ukrainian government to open an investigation into a political opponent Windsor Johnston n.p.r. News Washington the prime minister of the European Union's smallest member state Malta says he will step down next month after protests over the $27000.00 unsolved murder of an investigative journalist who want to take his reports the Prime Minister's closest aide has been linked to.